


Dragon Slayer

by MercySewerPyro



Series: Here There Be Dragons [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Dragons, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Light Angst, POV Second Person, Post-Order 66, Post-Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23015920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercySewerPyro/pseuds/MercySewerPyro
Summary: You are a stormtrooper commander of the Imperial Army, designation CC-2224.And you’ve been assigned to kill a dragon.
Series: Here There Be Dragons [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1674430
Comments: 4
Kudos: 62





	Dragon Slayer

You are a stormtrooper commander of the Imperial Army, designation CC-2224.

And you’ve been assigned to kill a dragon.

You feel like you should be proud of yourself; the Emperor himself called for you, hand-picked your 212th for this task. There was urgency in his tone, nerves in every word. The dragon was a threat, and you were the man for the job.

He told you it would lie to you. It would try to manipulate your men, turn you against each other. Only to eat the bones of the last man standing.

You don’t know how a dragon can speak, but you nod and make sure the others know too. Commlinks only, just in case.

You lose four men out of a platoon going up the mountain.

Not to the dragon, but to the elements. One slips, his grip failing at a crucial moment. Another’s heat regulation system is damaged by a rock slide, and he freezes to death in his armour. The last two fall prey to the other predators on this rock.

But the Emperor chose you. You let a traitor get away, but the Emperor chose you. You will not give up the mission.

It’s waiting for you.

In the howling wind and stark white snow of a mountain that has never seen a hint of green growth, it is a black shadow against the sky, teeth bared in what looks like a grin. It’s bigger than a standard dwelling, two storeys of coiled muscle atop six folded legs, wings large enough to block out the sun. It’s armoured, something that strikes you as odd, and the more you try to figure out who or what could have built armour for such a beast, the more you think it looks too like your own.

And it’s looking directly at you.

It doesn’t move.

It moves all too quickly.

You’re on your back before you can register what’s happening, gun lost to the snow, scrabbling for escape as a massive talon pins you to the ground.

Where are your troopers?

Why can’t you hear them shooting?

It leans down, grinning teeth inches from your visor, and for a moment you’re sure you will simply be the first of its platoon-worth of meals.

Instead, its voice invades your skull.

_“CC-2224. I know who you are.”_

Its mouth doesn’t move. Your comm is still off, and the futility of that order sinks into you like the cold. Everything else is muted, your entire world shrunk down to you and a monster.

You struggle regardless. You refuse to be manipulated.

_“Too late for that.”_

You tell it to shut up. It just laughs.

_“Toy soldier. Your strings pulled, you fall perfectly into place. No regrets?”_

You think of the traitor. The order to fire. You’d just handed back his-

You try to block the monster from your thoughts.

_“Your Emperor is afraid of me. He has good reason to be.”_

You’re trying not to listen. Trying to struggle.

_“I know who you are. You’re loyal to your brothers. You knew the Bad Batch. You were the right hand man of [TRAITOR].”_

Your mind scrambles the name into static, and a burst of pain reverberates in your skull. Somehow, you don’t think it’s the dragon’s doing.

“ _You didn’t even fight it._ ”

You feel angry about that, about its accusations, and you don’t know why.

_“And here you are. Following yet another order blindly. Don’t you want to know the truth?”_

Suddenly, the claw lets you go. You roll away- Finding your gun in the snow. On your feet in an instant, you level it at the beast, directly at its armoured face.

It’s grinning at you. It never stopped grinning at you.

_“Make your choice, Commander Cody. Are you a soldier, or a pawn?”_

You pull the trigger.

* * *

You report back to the Emperor with your success. Only four men dead, and the dragon slain. You don’t know how you didn’t lose the rest.

His congratulations, his prize of promotion - to stand at Vader’s side - feels hollow as it settles in your chest.

You feel hollow.

Your troopers are quieter than usual. They’ve been quiet since the betrayal, when you killed [TRAITOR]. A new army came with new rules. But something’s different now. Something’s changed.

You wonder what the dragon told them.

* * *

You don’t sleep well that night.

This isn’t new. You’ve had nightmares of Order 66 ever since you killed [TRAITOR]. But this time, the blurred out faces of the betrayers aren’t the only things haunting your dreams.

The dragon is _here_.

It stalks between the shadows, always watching you. Always grinning. Like it knows something you don’t.

The worst of your dreams stay away this time, as if they’re as afraid as you are. But instead the dragon matches your every step, and you don’t know which is worse.

You tell it to go away.

It just laughs at you, crouched over a corpse in armour that looks suspiciously like your own. It sounds like a brother.

Did it always sound like a brother?

When you wake, caught in a cold sweat, CT-2117 is awake too. You don’t make eye contact.

But you wonder if he dreamed the same thing.

* * *

You can’t stop thinking about the dragon.

They call you ‘Dragon Slayer’, now. The shinies, the speedies and the hired troopers, they all whisper about it, and they look at you with an admiration that just makes you feel ill.

You’re Commander ~~Cody~~ CC-2224, the man who killed the dragon.

But it still hunts you in every dream.

No, not hunts. _Waits_ , sits and waits for you, a now constant companion in your dreams. That’s almost worse.

It asked you, once, if you were happy. If you were enjoying your leadership of the 501st. If you felt good about replacing Captain [TRAITOR].

You didn’t have an answer. Just the hollow feeling in your chest.

Most of that platoon are dead now. It’s just you and CT-2117. But the haunted look in his eyes makes you think he experiences the same.

Maybe they all experienced the same. A dragon in the voice of a brother, telling them they were wrong.

You don’t know what to think any more.

* * *

This mission is taking you back to that planet.

The one you killed the dragon on.

You don’t know how to feel about it, and its facsimile in your dreams merely smiles when you mention it.

In the end, you feel you shouldn’t be surprised that CT-2117 is the one that finds you kitted up late one night, a back of supplies on your back and rifle in hand. He’s kitted up too. Matching stormtroopers in stark white.

You remember when you used to wear the proud yellow-gold of the 212th. When you both did.

You think you had a name, back then. You think he did too. But your mind, your stupid, useless mind, blurs it out into static just like your own. Just like [TRAITOR] and [TRAITOR].

Technically, this act might just make you a traitor too.

You share a look with your brother, a nod, and without a word, head for the mountain.

There’s no howling storm this time. No heavy snowfall to impede your way. Not even the sentry at the gate seemed to care you were leaving. Before the dragon, you might have cared enough to reprimand him.

But you don’t. Not any more.

You’re going to see the dragon.

* * *

You remember what had really happened, all those years ago.

You had lowered the gun, standing alone in the howling, swirling snow, icicles clinging to your armour.

Your shot had missed. Too far to the left, not even searing the dragon’s scales. A deliberate mistake.

Somehow, you couldn’t do it.

You’d wanted to know. Why was the Emperor afraid of a dragon?

It had grinned at you, a smile somehow strikingly similar to someone you used to know, and for some reason the unease you’d been feeling alleviated just enough.

_“Good choice, ner vod.”_

And the dragon had leaned in, and told you everything.

* * *

CC-2224 and CT-2117 are missing. Cody and Boil, just gone. Vader stood on the edge of the camp, brooding, staring up at the mountain that imposingly crowded the edge of the camp.

It was meant to be a simple routing of the local rebels, too stubborn for the regular - incompetent - rank and file to deal with. But his Commander and one of his oldest officers had simply… Walked away, and the sentry had said they had been heading for the mountain.

The sentry didn’t even know why he’d let them go. He was lucky Vader hadn't force-choked him where he stood for that.

They’d done a search of the mountain already, but a storm had picked up, surrounding its peak in a wall of howling ice that had already knocked a couple of his men to their deaths. It was too risky, even for retrieving the famed Commander.

He knew this is where Cody had earned his moniker of ‘Dragon Slayer’. The Emperor had been somehow _afraid_ of the creature, and to this day Vader had not been able to find out why. They’d accomplished it with minimal casualties, but Vader had to admit that there had maybe been some truth to the Emperor’s tales that it could manipulate from afar, worming its way into even the most strong-willed of hearts.

Cody and Boil had never been the same after it. Perhaps the mental toll had finally overcome them, and the dragon had enacted its revenge.

Not satisfied, but with no time to come to a better conclusion, the feared Sith Lord turned back to his camp, cape billowing. It was time to set his Legion into motion, and make an attack on the rebel forces. Commander or no Commander.

  
  


And in doing so, he missed the flickering forms of three drakes escape the storming clouds, and vanish into the sky.

**Author's Note:**

> I am aware this fic doesn't make a lick of sense. It's not supposed to, it's part of my personal project, stop leaving me comments about it.


End file.
